1952.75: Lekythos (oil flask): Laying Out the Body
VesselsA vessel with a flat base and narrow body which connects to a tall fluted stem. It is painted in red, black and white, much of the paint is worn away. There are three partially visible figures. One lays down, their head resting on a pillow. Above them, another figure lifts one hand to their head and reach their other arm over the head of the reclining figure toward a third, who is barely visible on the side of the vessel. They wear draping robes. Above the scene there is a geometric border.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1952.75
- People
-
Attributed to The Woman Painter
- Title
- Lekythos (oil flask): Laying Out the Body
- Classification
- Vessels
- Work Type
- vessel
- Date
- 430-420 BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Athens (Attica)
- Period
- Classical period
- Culture
- Greek
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/291306
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Terracotta with polychrome decoration
- Technique
- White-ground
- Dimensions
- H. 28 x Dia. 7 cm (11 x 2 3/4 in.)
State, Edition, Standard Reference Number
- Standard Reference Number
- Beazley Archive Database #217659
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund
- Accession Year
- 1952
- Object Number
- 1952.75
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Descriptions
- Description
- Attic
- Commentary
-
Re-View Exhibition, Spring 2008, gallery label information:
Lekythoi, containers for oil, were routinely deposited in or above tombs as gifts for the dead. Sometimes an insert just below the neck enabled mourners to leave just a small amount of oil while appearing to have offered a full vessel. In contrast to the majority of Greek vases, Attic lekythoi of the fifth century BCE were covered in a white slip and painted with fugitive polychrome decoration depicting funerary
themes. The left lekythos (1952.75) shows the prothesis, or laying out of the body, on a festooned bier surrounded by three mourning figures; the right (1925.30.54) depicts mourners visiting the grave, which is marked by a tall stele bedecked with garlands, now partly faded.
Publication History
- Beazley Archive: Classical Art Research Centre, website, University of Oxford, accessed August 14, 2009, http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/E0F7D877-AF02-46F2-BBFC-339992C32F5B
- David Gordon Mitten and Amy Brauer, Dialogue with Antiquity, The Curatorial Achievement of George M. A. Hanfmann, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1982), p. 13, no. 25.
- Sarah Jane Rennie, "The Identification of Original Decoration on a Collection of Attic White Ground Lekythoi" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 1994), Unpublished, pp. 1-24 passim
Exhibition History
- Dialogue with Antiquity: The Curatorial Achievement of George M.A. Hanfmann, Fogg Art Museum, 05/07/1982 - 06/26/1982
- To Bid Farewell: Images of Death in the Ancient World, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
- Re-View: S422 Ancient & Byzantine Art & Numismatics, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/12/2008 - 06/18/2011
- HAA132e The Ideal of the Everyday in Greek Art (S427) Spring 2012, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2012 - 05/12/2012
- 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/31/2024 - 01/05/2025
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu